Battle of Umm Diwaykarat

The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat (25 November 1899) was a battle of the Mahdist War fought between the forces of the United Kingdom and Egypt, commanded by Reginald Wingate, and a larger Mahdist army commanded by Abdallahi ibn Muhammad. After the disastrous Battle of Omdurman, the 25,000-strong Ansar army under the self-proclaimed Caliph Abdallahi withdrew from Khartoum to Kordofan, as they were still in control of Kordofan, Darfur, and the border with Ethiopia. Horatio Kitchener dispatched Wingate and 8,000 Anglo-Egyptian troops to defeat Abdallahi as he lived among his fellow Baggara tribesmen to the west of Kusti. The Mahdists attempted to attack the British forces as they approached, but they were driven back by withering fire from Maxim guns. The Mahdi failed to rally his men, and he had his main leaders sit with him on a horse skin to await death. His guards protected him, but they were mown down by enemy fire, and all of the emirs but Osman Digna were killed during the battle.

The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat marked the final defeat of the Mahdist state, with Digna leading scattered resistance until his January 1900 capture. In 1916, the last unoccupied territories of Darfur were occupied by the British, who transformed the Sudan into the Anglo-Egypt Sudan condominium.